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50 free Malala Yousafzai trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Malala Yousafzai was eleven when she began an anonymous diary about life under the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley, fifteen when the 2012 attack made her a global figure, and still a teenager when she became the youngest Nobel laureate in history. Few lives have been so public so early, and the detail is far richer than the headlines. These 50 questions follow the whole arc: the BBC diary and the newspaper documentary that followed it, the hospital and the school in England, the UN speech on her sixteenth birthday, the memoir and the picture book, the charity she founded with her father, the Oxford degree, and the honours, from a Pakistani bravery award to an object in the night sky that carries her name. Play it to see how much of the story you actually know, or print it for a classroom, a youth group or a quiz night with a human-rights round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which pseudonym, taken from a folktale heroine, did Malala Yousafzai use for her BBC Urdu blog from Taliban-held Swat?
Gul Makai
Gul Makai means "cornflower" in her native language and is the heroine of a Pashtun folktale; the byline kept the 11-year-old diarist anonymous.
Q 02Malala Yousafzai grew up in which Pakistani city, evacuated in May 2009 as the army moved against the Taliban?
Mingora
Mingora, the Swat town where she lived with her parents, two younger brothers and two chickens, emptied when the army's Second Battle of Swat began, and her family was displaced and separated.
Q 03Whose shawl did Malala Yousafzai wear for her first speech since the attack, at the UN on her 16th birthday?
Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto's shawl went with her to the UN on 12 July 2013, a date the UN named Malala Day; she had cited the assassinated prime minister as an inspiration since her first speech at age 11.
Q 04After the 9 October 2012 attack, Malala Yousafzai was flown to which English city's Queen Elizabeth Hospital?
Birmingham
Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital specialises in treating military personnel injured in conflict, and the city became her home: she finished school there and co-founded the Malala Fund while based there.
Q 05Malala Yousafzai's 2014 Nobel co-laureate, a children's rights activist from India, is best known for fighting what?
Child labour
Child labour was Kailash Satyarthi's lifelong target, and the Nobel citation paired it with discrimination against girls' education; the committee said it chose an Indian and a Pakistani on purpose.
Q 06Which British journalist co-wrote Malala Yousafzai's memoir I Am Malala, published a year after the attack on her?
Christina Lamb
Christina Lamb, a veteran foreign correspondent, co-wrote the book, which came out on 8 October 2013, the eve of the first anniversary of the attack, and sold almost 2 million copies within four years.
Q 07Which kind of celestial object, catalogued as number 316201, was named after Malala Yousafzai in 2015?
An asteroid
An asteroid, 316201 Malala, carries her name; the naming came in 2015, the year she turned 18.
Q 08The audiobook of Malala Yousafzai's memoir I Am Malala won a 2015 Grammy Award in which category?
Best Children's Album
Best Children's Album went to the I Am Malala audiobook, making the Nobel laureate a Grammy winner too.
Q 09On her 18th birthday Malala Yousafzai opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in which of Syria's neighbours?
Lebanon
Lebanon's school, near the Syrian border, teaches girls aged 14 to 18 and is funded by her charity; at its opening she urged world leaders to invest in "books, not bullets".
Q 10An 11-year-old Malala Yousafzai gave her first speech on education rights at which city's press club?
Peshawar
Peshawar's press club heard her ask "How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?", a line that newspapers and TV channels across the region picked up in September 2008.
Q 11How did the 11-year-old Malala Yousafzai get her anonymous BBC Urdu diary entries from Swat to the newsroom?
Handwritten notes to a reporter
Handwritten notes to a reporter, who scanned and e-mailed them, carried the diary out; the BBC had first asked other pupils, but their families thought it too dangerous.
Q 12Which newspaper's reporter Adam B. Ellick made the 2009 documentary Class Dismissed about Malala Yousafzai?
The New York Times
The New York Times filmed her as the army launched its offensive in Swat; the paper's reporter had approached her and her father once the BBC diary ended in March 2009.
Q 13Which body awarded Malala Yousafzai its 2013 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, a year before her Nobel?
Q 21Which British ex-prime minister, as UN education envoy, launched the 'I am Malala' petition after the 2012 attack?
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown visited her in hospital on 15 October 2012 and launched the petition, whose main demand was that no child anywhere be left out of school.
Q 22Malala Yousafzai's first major US late-night appearance, promoting her memoir, was on which host's show?
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart was left speechless on The Daily Show when the 16-year-old described what she would say to a Taliban attacker, and ended with "I am humbled to speak with you."
Q 23Which bravery award, Pakistan's second-highest civilian honour, did Malala Yousafzai receive in October 2012?
Sitara-e-Shujaat
European Parliament
European Parliament members choose the Sakharov laureate each year; she received it in 2013, the same year Amnesty International named her an Ambassador of Conscience.
Q 14Which archbishop nominated the 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai for the International Children's Peace Prize in 2011?
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu put her forward for the Dutch children's prize, making her the first Pakistani girl ever nominated; she missed out that year but won it outright in 2013.
Q 15Which prime minister presented Malala Yousafzai with Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize in December 2011?
Yousaf Raza Gillani
Yousaf Raza Gillani handed over the award on 19 December 2011, and at the ceremony the 14-year-old said she hoped one day to found a national party of her own to promote education.
Q 16In which year did Malala Yousafzai announce that she had passed her finals and completed her Oxford degree?
2020
2020 saw her pass her final exams in June and graduate with honours, three years after arriving at Oxford from her school in England.
Q 17Which climate activist travelled to Oxford University in February 2020 to meet Malala Yousafzai, then a student there?
Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg made the trip in February of her host's final year at Oxford, a few months before the finals.
Q 18Malala Yousafzai signed a multiyear 2021 deal to produce dramas, comedies and children's series for which streamer?
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ announced the partnership on 8 March 2021, adding film and television producer to the CV of a Nobel laureate.
Q 19Malala Yousafzai's 2017 picture book, illustrated by Kerascoët, takes its title from which magic object?
A pencil
A pencil gives Malala's Magic Pencil its name; published on 17 October 2017, it had passed 5,000 UK sales by the following March.
Q 20Besides Urdu and English, Malala Yousafzai is fluent in which language, the tongue of her Yusufzai tribe?
Pashto
Pashto is the language of the Pashtuns, and her family belongs to the Yusufzai tribe that gives her its surname; she was educated mostly by her father, a poet who ran a chain of private schools.
Sitara-e-Shujaat came within weeks of the attack, in a month that also saw Pakistani officials offer a 10 million rupee reward over the shooting.
Q 24In January 2012 Malala Yousafzai received an Award for Moral Courage named after which Holocaust-era figure?
Anne Frank
Anne Frank's name was on the award, and a year later a leading US newspaper critic wrote that only Frank's diary rivalled I Am Malala as a moving chronicle of war.
Q 25A 2013 painting of Malala Yousafzai by Jonathan Yeo was displayed at which London institution?
National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery visitors saw Yeo's painting in 2013, the year she turned 16 and Time first listed her among the world's 100 most influential people.
Q 26In 2017 Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person ever appointed to which honorary United Nations role?
Messenger of Peace
Messenger of Peace became hers in 2017, at 19, the same year she left school for Oxford.
Q 27The Malala Fund, which Malala Yousafzai co-founded with her father in 2013, is headquartered in which city?
Washington
Washington is home to the fund, a US 501(c)(3) charity whose stated goal is 12 years of free, safe and quality education for every girl.
Q 28Which actress made the Malala Fund's first donation, $200,000, after explaining the attack to her children in print?
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie's 2013 gift paid for girls' education in the Swat Valley, and her article had tried to answer her own children's questions about the attack.
Q 29Which donor committed $4 million in 2016 to launch the Malala Fund's Education Champion Network?
Gates Foundation
Gates Foundation money seeded a network of local advocates that by 2017 was set to disburse up to $10 million a year across countries from Afghanistan to Brazil.
Q 30When Ebola closed schools in 2015, the Malala Fund bought radios so 1,200 girls could keep learning in which country?
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone's government shut its schools during the epidemic, so the fund created radio classrooms for 1,200 marginalised girls.